Tag: Dining at Club Med

Here’s a few things I didn’t have a place for in other posts about Club Med Punta Cana. I hope they’ll help you decide you need to go there and visit. If so, call my friends at CTC Travel.

Dinner A La Carte

You never have to face down a buffet at Punta Cana unless you want to or unless you didn’t get your Indigo reservations in soon enough. Indigo reservations can only be made in person at the restaurant on the day you want to eat there. They start taking reservations at 9 AM and if you wait too long, you either won’t get the time you want or you won’t get in at all.

We celebrated our anniversary by having dinner at Indigo. It was a lovely meal, but Bill made better choices than I did. He had some kind of whole fish and he says it was one of the most amazing meals he’s ever had. I had some Dominican shrimp in a plantain bowl. Good, but not one of the most amazing meals I’ve ever had. Here’s a few pics from Indigo and that meal.

Another Dinner Choice

With so much free food and drink available, we didn’t see much reason to spend money that way, but there was one opportunity to do just that. It was called La Cava. On the patios of Samana and Hispanolo (for dinner only) there was a section set aside for La Cava guests. You become a La Cava guest when you purchase wine, whiskey or cigars from La Cava and enjoy them with a meal. If we’d been there longer, we might have considered it, but we did just fine with the included comestibles.

Shopping

There were a few shops at the resort and they had lovely things – but there were no bargains. Not a single one. Especially not on larimar, a semi-precious gemstone found only in the Dominican Republic. The cheapest larimar I found at the resort was a pair of earrings with a tiny piece of larimar hanging from each stud. The price was $80 and if someone had brought it to me, I would have thought it was some cheap trinket they got for about 5. So none of my friends got larimar.

At the resort, everything is priced in Dominican pesos and while everyone can tell you how much that is in euros, they are not so good with dollars. That made shopping quite challenging. It also almost caused Bill a heart attack when he saw a receipt with a bottom line of 4210.

45

Several years back, Club Med celebrated its 45th anniversary by printing up lots of T-shirts and other items with the number 45. The items sold like hot cakes So, when their 50th came, encouraged by the sales of the 45 items, they printed up lots of 50 merchandise. However, the 50 merchandise was a bust. They almost had to give it away to get rid of it. but while everyone was rejecting the 50th anniversary merchandise, they were still requesting items with 45 on it. You’ll see the 45 logo all over the resort on everything from t-shirts and bikinis to flip flops and beach bags. Vintage 45 items are a status symbol. We spent a lot of time speculating on the ubiquitous logo and as we asked around, trying to solve the mystery, we discovered there were almost as many answers as their were t-shirts. Some Americans thought it was for Trump – NOT! Some French people claimed it was the number of a popular soccer player. I asked the Chief of the Village and he gave me this skinny. So, in case you ever go to a Club Med resort and wonder, well here’s the answer.

Farewell to Punta Cana

I think that about covers it. You should have everything you need to enjoy a resort vacation with Club Med – and I heartily suggest you give it a try. I’m probably the only person on the face of the earth that wouldn’t think it was the best vacation ever, but my best vacations are devoted to satisfying my inner Museum Girl.

Would we ever return to Club Med Punta Cana? If we were the sort to repeat destinations, then there is no reason we would not. It is a beautiful resort with great food and a lot of fun things to do. We just rarely return to someplace we’ve already been.

So will we ever do Club Med again? It is certainly a possibility, but we’d probably only go for three nights, not five. We had a great time, but while Bill is more active at sports than I am, neither of us prefer sports for days on end. I can see us doing it before or after a vacation devoted to all my museums, palaces and historic sites or just getting away for a few day.

Winning the fabulous door prize from CTC Travel certainly gave us a new favorite possibility on our wish list, but we’ve already got the next trip planned. I’m just not ready to tell you about it yet. Right now, as I finish up this post it is June, shortly after our Club Med vacation, I have no idea what I’ll be offering up next week on Travel Talk, but please come back. I promise it will be fun!

Breakfast is never my favorite meal of the day and dinner at Club Med Punta Cana was, well, in a word, overwhelming. Day after day, lunch proved to be the meal I enjoyed most.

Bounteous Buffet

Every day, except the first one, we ate lunch at Hispanola, the buffet dining choice. I made an exhaustive list of all the things available at breakfast, several weeks ago. It was the same sort of thing at lunch, but as I’ve said, I preferred the lunch menu.

My favorite lunch was the one pictured above. The seafood stew had mussels, clams, shrimp and other delicious things. Also on the plate is a sample of the Dominican Beef I learned to love and a chicken dish of some sort and even if I don’t know it’s name, I can tell you it was good. And veggies? Always a wide variety of them, prepared in a myriad of ways. I love veggies.

I also love bread and cheese. Those were available in astounding numbers and varieties. Salads were always being served, but my favorite salad experience was the day I chose what I wanted from the salad bar and a lady tossed it with an amazing vinaigrette and some of the most delicious ripe avocados I’ve ever eaten.

There was a grill offering hamburgers and hot dogs. A pizza oven produced several different kinds of pizza every day. The delicious seafood stew came from a seafood grill. All around the huge buffet were all kinds of delicious choices up to and including peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

If your thing is really dessert – never fear. The dessert bar was just as awesome at lunch as it was at dinner. The kids seemed to love the soft serve ice cream, with plenty of sprinkles and chocolate syrup available. The adults lined up for a selection of freshly made gelatos. Was there plenty of fresh fruit if you preferred? Of course, there was.

It was never a good idea to leave your food unattended

My Solo Lunch

Lunch was so good that one day, when Bill was just too tired to make the hike to the restaurant, I went ahead on my own. It wasn’t as if I was actually hungry. I just didn’t want to miss lunch. The evening meal was lovely, but far removed from the beach. I preferred to sit in Hispanola, enjoying the gorgeous Caribbean day and the sparkling turquoise water, while I lingered over a delicious meal.

On the other days, when I’d eaten lunch with Bill, there was always another activity cued up right after lunch. On those days, I stuck to water and soda. A glass of wine or beer would have put me to sleep. I wouldn’t have made much of a cheerleader under those circumstances. For my solo lunch, I allowed myself the luxury of cool white wine. It made everything perfect.

Yes, the Meals Were Great

In case you haven’t caught the drift of it yet, one of the best things about Club Med Punta Cana is the spectacular food offerings. I came home with a few extra pounds, but I love my friends at CTC Travel anyway! There’s only a few more things I need to share. Come back next week and we can probably wrap up our stay.

Mornings came with a choice – Indigo Beach Bar & Grill where you ordered from the menu or Hispanola, a buffet. Both were great and both offered unique experiences.

Indigo

Our first morning, we still didn’t have it all figured out. I didn’t know where Hispanola was or even if it was available, since the day before, our friend in reception said it was closed. We did know Indigo, because we’d had lunch there and I knew it was near the place where the orientation tour was supposed to begin. Decision made.

If you like a great view, a laid back atmosphere and ordering from a menu, then Indigo is the place for you. We had our first breakfast there and our last, with little to complain about. The menu is somewhat limited, but there’s an egg choice, a pancake choice, a healthy choice or you can just tell them what you want. They will deliver a basket of pastries and fixings to the table and/or you can graze from a small buffet with cheese, cold cuts and cereal.

If I was going to complain, I might say the service was a little slow and not exactly four star, but things are so relaxed in Punta Cana that it would almost be ridiculous to complain. One more thing, if you don’t like runny eggs, then you are in trouble. The menu says sunny-side up, so I specifically asked if they could flip it over and cook the yolk hard. The waitress said yes, but the plate delivered said no. Then I looked at the view and decided I could live with it.

Breakfast at Hispanola

Hispanola

Forget everything you ever knew about breakfast buffets! I’ve had breakfast buffets all over the world and never in my life did I ever see such variety.

A grill for the egg, bacon and sausage crowd

A huge table with every sort of bread to slice that you can imagine

The entire front of the facility was one long buffet with everything from the most gorgeous pastries you have ever seen to oatmeal to pork & beans – and everything else in-between – but that was only the beginning.

Another buffet offered sweet breakfast treats, like pancakes, crepes and Belgian waffles. For some reason that’s also where you’d find cheese quesadillas.

Another vast expanse offered toast, muffins, English muffins, bagels – all the stuff you like to heat up before you enjoy and yes they had a toaster.

One section had dried fruits, cold cuts, nuts – probably pickled herring – but I never got very close to that table.

An entire bar of fruits – all fruits, every fruit – juiced, sliced and whole.

A dairy bar with my precious cheeses in a wide variety, as well as milk, cream, yogurt and cold cereal

In other words, breakfast at Hispanola was an event. We’d enjoy our morning repast out on a covered patio, but in reality the whole thing was one huge open-air facility.

And this is where I have to mention the flies. Al fresco dining is a wonderful thing, but there is nothing you can do about the flies. Even though Samana is not actually open air, they leave both sets of double doors wide open all the time. It’s not like the buffets were fly-covered or even that you were pestered by flies, but if you are going to melt-down because a fly might have crawled on your beignet, I’d say you should skip Club Med Punta Cana. I’m no fly lover, but having come from the food industry, Bill is more particular. He just sucked it up and lived with it, but he didn’t like it.

Great Mornings

Whether you choose Indigo or Hispanola, breakfast at Club Med is a great way to start the day. I confess, I did not work out every morning at Punta Cana the way I do at home, but I don’t walk all day at home the way I did in Punta Cana. I have to say that waking up whenever you darned well please and strolling over to a beautiful breakfast is a pretty nice life.

As I said grace over my morning meal, I’d say a little thank you for CTC Travel that had made it all possible. Come back next week and we’ll talk about how we kept ourselves busy during the day.

I have no complaints about Club Med Food. I liked some things better than others, but there was not a thing available that was anything but good. Meals were delicious all day long, but dinner at Samana was something special.

Bon Jour & Bon Appetite

After our visit to Cielo, we’d stroll across the patios to Samana and climb the stairs. Just inside the doors we’d be greeted by a delightful lady we came to recognize by sight – even if we doubted she recognized us at all.

We’d tell her there were two of us and she’d find us a table. You could sit wherever you wanted, but we discovered we needed the hostess. One night we arrived and she wasn’t standing there, so we wandered around on our own. A bit later we came back to the door, happy to see her waiting, feeling quite silly for having tried to seat ourselves.

As soon as we had a table, a server would appear and offer us a beverage. Bill would get red wine and I would get white. Then we’d disappear off to the many, many buffet table. We didn’t stick to a particular order for our food. We’d wander about and pick the things that interested us most. I think the first night was by far the best, Beef Wellington, escargot, veal and much more.

Confession, I ate more cheese, morning, noon and night, than anyone probably ever should – but it was SO good. There’s a reason I don’t keep a variety of cheeses in my frig – I would eat them. Mozzerella, Blue, Gouda, Swiss, Emmantala, Tontine, Farmers, Feta, Brie – along with amazing breads, dried apricots, nuts and more. I ate enough that it should have been all I ate, but this was vacation, right?

The menu rotated every night. Around the central area,

a huge section for appetizers, mostly fresh seafood and shellfish

cheese and bread

the next section would vary by evening. The section next to the bread would vary with the evening and then the desserts would begin.

then grilled meats and other entrees, like the Beef Wellington or Halibut Oscar

one corner had a pizza oven offering fresh slices – very popular with the kids

a section with Dominican foods.

In my youth I went with a group of my college friends to an all-inclusive resort – a Jack Tar Village on Grand Bahama. Eating was no problem. You couldn’t eat all the food they offered, but beverages were a whole ‘nother thing. The beverages were supposed to be included and you could usually manage to get one, but good luck getting refills. Thankfully, we discovered a rum factory nearby and dosed ourselves quite liberally with coconut rum, but could get little of anything beverage-wise from the staff. We also discovered the vending machines had beer. I didn’t have any of that, but I think our group had cleaned out every beer out of every vending machine before the week was over.

There was no stinginess with alcohol at Club Med. All throughout dinner the waitstaff kept our glasses filled – both the wine and the water. It wasn’t fine wine, but it was fine – if you know what I mean. The guest population of the resort was primarily French, if you remember, so I doubt Club Med could get by without the good stuff. I noticed that most people were drinking rose’, something that surprised me. I knew it was becoming a thing over here, but apparently the French like it, too.

After dinner there would usually be entertainment, so come back next week and enjoy the shows with us. I can’t sign off without another thank you to CTC Travel. Thanks so much, we loved Club Med.